A 12 year old boy was recovering in hospital Monday after being knocked down in Limerick City center.

The child was struck by a Garda vehicle as he was crossing O’ Connell Street just outside Easons, near the William Street junction, around 1.30pm Monday afternoon.

He was immediately taken to the regional hospital in Dooradoyle where he remains in a stable condition.

The road was closed for a short time while Garda collision investigators examined the scene. As a Garda vehicle was involved, it is standard procedure that the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission investigates the incident.

Diversions were in place to accommodate evening rush hour traffic.

The Live register grew by 873 people across Limerick in July, according to detailed CSO figures released Friday morning.

The new figures show that 23,148 people are now signing on the live register across the city and county. The city register now stands at 16,490 people for July, up 671 on June.

In the county, July figures show there are 2,919 people signing on at welfare offices in Kilmallock, a rise of 79 on June, while there are 3,739 people signing at the Newcastle West offices, a rise of 123 on June figures.

Nationally there were 466,800 people signing on, an increase of almost 14,000 on the previous month.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has said the national figure would be “far higher” were not so many people forced to either leave the country or stay out of the workforce.

“There are now over 270,000 less people at work than in 2007. They are no longer paying taxes income taxes and their spending power is greatly reduced. This is reflected in the recent fall in income tax receipts and in retail sales,” Paul Sweeney, Economic Advisor to Irish Congress of Trade Unions said.

4,562 of the total July Limerick figure are people under 25.

Gardai carried out a number of searches across the country Wednesday in relation to criminal activity in Limerick.

Gardai say the searches were conducted in Dublin, Tipperary, Offaly and Kerry, which they say were targeting individuals involved in gang feuding in Limerick.

“A total of 12 searches were conducted and included searches of private residences, commercial premises and professional offices,” a Garda spokesperson confirmed.

The searches were conducted by members of the Criminal Assets Bureau, Detective Gardai from Birr, Roscrea, Nenagh and Tipperary Town Garda Stations, the Regional Support Unit based in Mullingar Garda Station, The Garda Dog Unit and members of the Divisional Crime Task Force.

Although nobody was arrested, Gardai confirmed €38,000 in cash was seized along with a large amount of documentary evidence and computers.

Investigations are said to be ongoing.

Firefighters in Limerick were battling a large fire which broke out at the Hegarty metals plant late Monday night.

The large fire at the scrap yard, located on the Ballysimon Road, produced a thick plume smoke stretching to neighbouring housing estates.

Limerick City fire services were alerted to the fire with further units from Shannon, including a water tanker from Cappamore called in to assist in tackling the blaze.

Firefighters were working through the early morning hours Tuesday in an effort to bring the fire, which broke out around midnight Monday, under control.

Although it was unclear what material was burning, residents of the adjacent Glandale Lawn estate, who were bearing the brunt of the smoke and foul smell, were not evacuated.

No one is believed to have been injured. Fire officials say a complete investigation into the fire will get underway Tuesday.

Commemorative event a tribute to “brave drivers of a bygone age”

The sound of revving engines will once again dominate the city streets this Sunday when Limerick Classic and Vintage Car Club host a one day event to mark the 75th anniversary of the first Limerick Grand Prix.

Thousands of people came out on August 5th, 1935 to see the first Grand Prix race, known as ‘Round the Houses’ event, roar down city streets. The Mayor of Limerick waved the starting flag for the premiere event which attracted teams from all over Europe to participate.

The commemorative event Sunday will take the form of a number of parade laps of the original 2.67 miles of circuit which incorporates O’Connell Street, William Street, Roxborough Road, Carey’s Road, Rossbrien Road, Punch’s Cross, O’Connell Avenue and O’Connell Street.

“The first race was eventually won by Luis Fontes in his Alfa-Romeo. It was presumably followed by one of Fontes infamous after race parties which on one occasion involved balancing on a ledge four stories up with a girl on his shoulders.”

“The race was held again in 1936 with participants such as renowned and accomplished race driver Prince Bira of Thailand in his ERA and Stanley Woods, famous motorcyclist taking part,” Martin Burke of Limerick Classic and Vintage Car Club explained this week.

Organisers say three of the original cars that took part in the 1935 race, along with over twenty era cars will take part in Sunday’s commemorative event.

The takes place between 9:30 and 10:30am starting from Pery Square.

Then from 3pm the Limerick Classic and Vintage Car club will host a display of Prestige and Performance cars in Pery Square. There will also be a display of memorabilia, photographs and reports from the original race on display.

More Details
Photos from the 1935 race.
Actual newsreel video coverage of the 1935 race.

Activity at the newly redeveloped Milk Market will be boosted this Thursday when the venue hosts it’s first ever Artisan Craft Fair.

The fair, which will be held on the last Thursday of every month, will aim to get a wide variety of Ireland’s artisan community together in order to showcase and demonstrate their talents to a large audience at the Milk Market.

The fair will be seen as a great opportunity for people to discover hand made and hand crafted works from some of Ireland’s finest artists and craftspeople.

“It will have an eclectic variety of stall holders offering a broad range of excellent products including ceramics, woodwork, jewellery, hand crafted vintage clothes, cards, knitwear, bespoke furniture and much more.”

This Thursday sees the first ever live demonstration of wood turning and pottery to be held at the Milk Market.

The fair runs from midday to 7pm.

The prosecuting counsel in the case of eight Limerick men, accused of a number of alleged extortion related offences, has told the Special Criminal court in Dublin that their trials had been moved there because the “ordinary courts” were “inadequate to secure the administration of justice.”

State counsel Tom O’ Connell made the comments as eight men appeared before the three judge, non-jury court, charged with a number of various offences between them, including threatening to kill or cause serious harm, violent disorder and demanding money with menace at dates as far back as October 2008.

During the brief formality hearing, the charges against the men, who appeared in court pairs, were laid before the jusges.

The men were arrested by Gardai during pre-panned searches on a number of properties in Weston and Dooradoyle last April.

The court adjourned the case for a further hearing on October 7th next.

The official opening of the Limerick Tunnel will take place today as the multi million euro project finally opens to traffic with the creation of 100 new jobs.

It’s expected the tunnel will open to traffic by 3:30pm following an opening ceremony in which the Taoiseach will attend.

It’s hoped the tunnel, which runs under the Shannon for a distance of nearly 900m, along with 10km of new dual carriageway, will lead to the removal of up to 28,000 cars a day from Limerick city centre.

The project cost around €605m and joins the Limerick southern ring road with the N18 at Cratloe.

If you do plan on using the new road though, it will come at a price. Cars will have to pay a toll of €1.80, with buses forking out €3.20.

The new road includes 11 bridges, 6 underpasses and two toll plazas for the collection of the tolls.

NEW DETAILS
The Limerick Tunnel opened to traffic around 4.30pm with officials reporting a steady flow of traffic using the new route.

An Taoiseach, Mr Brian Cowen cut the ribbon at the opening and said the tunnel is an “historic crossing under the river Shannon. It is a key element in our national road infrastructure and is vitally important to the people of the Mid-West.”

He went on to say,

The people of Limerick have waited for this day for a long time. People will be able to go about their business in Limerick City without having to endure traffic jams and inevitable delays even on relatively short journeys.

We now have an alternative crossing of the Shannon that will take large amounts of through traffic away from the approach roads to Limerick City and its suburbs and return those streets to their residents.

The Limerick Tunnel is part of a much wider network of world-class roads being delivered all across the country. As many here will know, we are in the final stages of a project that will deliver hundreds of kilometres of motorway linking Dublin with Belfast, Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford.

Known collectively as the Major Interurban Routes, they are providing a reliable, fast and safe means of transporting people and goods between the major centres of population and our major sea and airports.

Limerick Mayor Maria Byrne was also at the opening ceremony Tuesday and said the project will reduce very significantly the volumes of traffic moving through the city centre, thus enabling the City Council to advance its City Centre Strategy, involving pedestrianisation and significant upgrading of the public realm.

“The attractiveness of the City as a place in which to do business will be greatly enhanced. There will also be benefits in reduced costs and travel time for our citizens and businesses on both sides of our great river,” the Mayor said.

Richard Butler, Cathaoirleach of Limerick County Council described the delivery of the project, which was first conceived in the early 1970’s, as “truly world class”.

The Tunnel Stats

:: 10km two-lane dual carriageway.

:: 2.3km single lane carriageway Clonmacken Link spur to north side of the city.

:: Two No. grade separated Junctions at the Dock Road and at the N18 Tie-in.

:: Two No. Interchanges at Rossbrien and at Coonagh.

:: 675m long immersed tube tunnel under the river Shannon.

:: The tunnel has a capacity to take 40,000 vehicles per day.

:: The tunnel is the length of five football pitches and is the height of an average two storey house.

:: 750m causeway across Bunlicky lake with Bridge Crossings of Ballinacurra and Meelick Creeks.

:: Two Combined Road/Rail Bridge Crossings, five road bridges, four underpasses and eight major culverts.

:: Two toll plazas and associated facilities.

:: 400,000m3 dredged from the river of fill material.

:: There are two toll plazas are located on the Clonmacken Link road and on the mainline north of the Clonmacken.